World-class review of ballet and dance.
Meryl Tankard is somewhat of an Aussie dance legend. A choreographer of international renown, her works have been mounted and premiered on prestigious companies ranging from Royal Ballet of Flanders and NDT III in Europe, to the Australian Ballet and Sydney Dance Company in her homeland.
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Do ballet trends bubble up cyclically, or did artistic directors collude to engineer this year’s “Firebird” mania? Suddenly this spring, the flaring-eyed creature immortalized in Stravinsky’s 1910 score is headlining programs at American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem, almost all at once.
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“Empreintes” featuring two new creations by Jess & Morgs and Marcos Morau, reads as a choreographic response to Walter Benjamin’s reflections on the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction.
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Maurice Béjart would surely have been delighted to see La Seine Musicale’s vast Grande Salle, that striking structure seemingly floating on the river above the Île Seguin, filled for all six March performances of his company’s tour.
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Penn Live Arts presented Rennie Harris’s “Losing My Religion” last week as part of its America Unfinished Series, marking the country’s semiquincentennial.
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Motherhood has often been idealized as the ultimate fulfillment of being a woman. In fact, in many cultures, motherhood is still understood as a woman's basic mission and an inseparable part of her nature.
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A gifted satirist, Jane Comfort’s dance theater productions are razor sharp and wickedly indelible. Take, for instance, the evening length “Beauty” (2012), with its robotic Barbie beauty contest.
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On the first weekend of spring, Japan Society presented multidisciplinary, avant-garde artist Hiroaki Umeda and his dance ensemble Somatic Field Project in an evening-length program of his latest cutting-edge dance works.
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American Ballet Theatre typically holds court in NYC twice a year. Their Summer Season at the Metropolitan Opera House features classical narrative full-lengths, and the Fall Season at the Koch Theater showcases edgier, short-form works.
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Unlikeable humanity in a rapacious society, Kenneth MacMillan’s “Manon” hits the zeitgeist—again. Recently staged by the National Ballet of Japan, it’s a stunning testimony to the ballet’s relevance across time and space. Fifty years since its creation and set in eighteenth-century France, the production nevertheless holds a mirror to now.
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An ambitious yet flawed work, “Dis-order,” seen last week at the Skirball Cultural Center, was described in the program notes as a “communal ritual, and a family drama that asks what forces move through us when we enact an ancient spring rite, and what is left unspoken when we gather around the table.”
PlusLong before the dancers take the stage, Dance Theatre of Harlem’s season at New York City Center feels like one of the most energizing cultural events of the spring.
PlusIt is rare for George Balanchine’s grand, bedazzled “Symphony in C” to open a program. Its champagne-popping finale for 52 dancers tends to be a nightcap.
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The Spring is Blooming festival, by Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, now in its fifth year, has become a highlight of the spring dance circuit.
PlusAs the audience come to their feet at the end of this ballet there is a noted difference to be seen on stage. Three women stand with joined hands, taking their call as the romantic leads of a loud and proud lesbian ballet.
PlusOne of San Francisco Ballet’s greatest assets is its home venue, the Beaux-Arts style War Memorial Opera House, with four rings of seating that require performers to project their energies practically to the exosphere.
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